Mother

Mother

A Story by Ian Titian
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In this surreal story, a young boy, secluded boy meets a strange puppet man and a kind rag doll who exposes him to the truth regarding his "sweet, kind, and caring" mother.

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Mother

 

 

 

 


A story by:

Ian titian

 

That afternoon, while my mother was away at work, a man came up to knock on my door.

“That’s weird.” I thought, “Never once in my whole life has another human being knocked on the door before.”

The knocks became louder, and louder, and it grew more frequent. “One, two, three ...” I counted each knock that synced to my own heartbeat, my thudding, racing heartbeat that made it seem as if my heart was going to pop out of my chest.

“Hello? Is anyone home?” Asked a voice suddenly after the eleventh knock, the knock that nearly broke the living room door down.

“Yes. Yes there is.” I called back. My mother always told me to be honest, but I was also very nervous since, she also told me never to talk to anyone except her.

Truth be told, this wasn’t the first time I’ve broken the rule. I’ve talked to the voices in my room before, but still I felt nervous nonetheless.

“Could you please open the door?” Asked the person behind the door.

My mother also told me to always obey orders, and so, I obeyed.

I opened the door, though not all the way, and a weird man was standing behind it. A very slender man wearing a black suit, white gloves stained in red, a white burlap sack over his head with three holes, two for the eyes, and one for the mouth, as well as a black bowler hat.

“Good afternoon little boy. May I ask, is your mother home?” Asked the man in a kind voice.

“No sir, she’s still at work.” I answered, my whole body and face still half hidden behind the half open door.

“Oh.” Said the man. “Please don’t be shy or scared, for I am not bad and I don’t bite. I can’t bite. Look at me.” He added. For some reason his voice got a little shaky and his neck twitched a couple of times.

“What name have you been given, boy?” He asked.

“I don’t know sir. My mother never gave me a name. She said I wouldn’t need it since I wouldn’t need to ever meet anyone other than herself.” I told the man in a timid and somewhat terrified voice. I couldn’t help it. I really was terrified ... what if mother knew I was talking to the man? I wish I wouldn’t have known by the end of the day.

“Never gave you name? Well, that’s weird and sort of a pity too.” Said the man as he knelt down.

I wanted to ask him his name, but couldn’t muster up enough courage to do so.

“Tell you what ... I’ll give you a gift of a name little boy, let’s see ... what about Max? You like that name boy?” He asked kindly.

I nodded.

“Good. May I come in?” Asked the man as he stood up.

“Is that by any means a command or an order mister?” I asked. “Must I let you in?”

The man stood quiet as if he was thinking for a few seconds before whispering, “Yes Max.”

I nodded once before opening the door, allowing the man to walk inside. I thought the way he walked was kind of funny, I mean, it’s so different from the way mother walks. His arms lightly swayed from side to side, and his steps were slow and his back was hunched forward. He only took one step at a time.

“Nice room. Simple. I like simplicity. A simple room just like it was so long ago.” Muttered the man in barely more than a stuttery whisper, but I heard every word. The man was still walking around my living room strangely when he gave that comment. He was circling the room as I saw his neck twitch a few more times.

“Thank you.” I replied. My mother always told me to say thank you when given a compliment. Weird though, the only time she ever gave me a compliment was when I ... actually, I forgot when.

“Such a nice room and such a nice chair. Nothing’s changed” Said the man before reaching for the chair in the middle of the room. I think it was pretty funny how stiffly he walked towards the chair with his arms fully extended in front of him, as if he was trying to catch something.

“I’m not sure you are allowed to sit there, mister.” I said as the man was about to sit down.

“Why not?” Asked the man as his head slowly ... very slowly turned to face me. I was quite surprised when a thin line of red liquid suddenly poured down from the right eye hole of the man’s sack.

“W-why not? Wh-why why not?” Asked the man stutteringly as his head and neck frantically twitched around. “I t-thought y-you were a g-g-good b-boy Max.”

“My mother told me never to sit on that chair. She always told me she’s the only one who is allowed to sit there, mister.” I answered.

Suddenly, the man’s frantic twitching stopped. “Oh, your mother?” He said in a somewhat cold and distant whisper.

“Yes, my mother mister.” I answered. “The mother I love the most.”

“What’s her name again, Max? ...” Asked the man.

“I don’t know her name, mister.” I answered with a chuckle. Why would a kid ever need to learn the name of his mother? There’s no need for that. What a silly man.

The man stood quiet for a while.

“We need to always obey our mother, don’t we mister? Surely you must understand, don’t you?” I asked.

The man was still frozen on his about-to-sit position as he gave a very ... oh, how do I describe it ... chilling, high pitched, blood curling laugh. It was a long laugh too. What a weird man. I myself just stood there watching him laugh.

The man’s head twitched a few more times as he laughed, but his body didn’t even move an inch. His body was completely frozen on the spot.

Finally, after the long laugh was over, the man said, “Close the door please.” In his airy, spacious voice before sitting down sprawled on the floor next to the chair.

I was so transfixed watching the man that I didn’t even realize I existed. It’s as if my only purpose of existing was to watch the man and answer his questions. It’s as if I was in a completely different world. But what he said brought me back to where I was. Standing at the doorway in my house.

“Yes mister.” I said before turning around to close the door. The lamp in the middle of the room flickered once as I did so. It caught me a little off guard. Not that it never happened before though.

The man had his head tilted to side and was looking directly at me with those hollow holes he had for eyes while he was still sitting cross legged on the floor.

 I smiled at him lightly before the lights flickered a few times more. By which time for a few seconds the man’s face looked, or rather felt somewhat ... scary. Even though I was pretty sure it didn’t change.

“Come sit here Max.” Called out the man. His position was frozen once again, but his whispery voice sounded so inviting, yet sounded so much like an order at the same time. I had no choice. Even though I did think twice, my mother’s voice echoed in my head, telling me once again never to disobey orders. I had to come to the man and sit in front of him, I had no choice. I musn’t, I couldn’t disobey orders!

I walked slowly towards the man, and as I did, the lamp flickered once or twice more. Weird, I thought. The lamp never flickered that much on a single day before. Usually ... not even more than once or twice a week, I would count.

Yes, I do count those kinds of things. That’s the kind of thing I do in this lonely house.

“Tea?” Offered the man as I sat down.

“Yes please.” I answered.

My eyes widened as I saw the man ooze some more red liquid, this time from the man’s left eye hole. At the same time, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small plastic cup, along with a small teabag. A weird teabag though, it was purple in color.

I thought about asking the man concerning the red lines of liquid he had oozed out of his eyes, but I thought such a question might offend the man, and so I kept quiet.

“I’ve never seen purple tea before.” Instead I asked.

The man stood quiet. He was reaching into deeper into his jacket before pulling out a small thermos.

“You know Max ... it must feel kind of lonely here right?” Asked the man as he poured hot water into the cup.

“Yes, sometimes.” I answered. “But then again, I have my mother and the voices in my room to keep me company, so maybe not really.” I added after thinking about his question for a few seconds.

“Voices ...” Muttered the man as he began dipping the teabag into the cup filled with hot water. “You know, I was just wondering ... maybe you would like to drop by my place sometimes. You know, to play. You’ll meet new friends.” He said.

“New friends?” I asked. I felt kind of funny inside hearing that word. Strange.

“Yes, new friends.” Repeated the man. “You know, the world is not just about your mother and your ... friend voices. You could meet new ‘people’ you know.” He explained.

“I think so ... but mother never told me that.” I said. “My mother never wanted me to meet new people.”

The man suddenly fell silent. His left hand was on rested on his left leg, while his right hand was still holding the teabag. He was frozen in that position for a few seconds, as the lamp above him flickered a few times more, before he suddenly leaned forward, his face only a few inches from my own. His hollow, red-liquid-stained burlap sack face seemed to have pierced into my soul at that moment. My face started sweating and my eyes wouldn’t blink.

“It’ll be fun, Max.” Said the man. His cold breath brushed my face as he spoke. It felt like I had just opened the refridgerator door. “Please Max, won’t you come with me? You’ll have lots of friends there. I promise. They’re all named Max, such as yourself.” He added as he suddenly, in a lightning fast motion, raised both of his hands and grabbed my forearms, crunching it. I felt a cold chill down my spine.

It reminded me of the times my mother would do the same thing to me everytime I did something wrong.

“I ... I d-don’t know if m-mother would l-let me.” I muttered in a stuttery voice.

“It’ll be fine. I know your mother, trust me. Please trust me. I’ll talk to her later. She won’t get mad at you.” He insisted as his grip on me got tighter.

I hestitated.

“This is an order Max. Please obey it, come with me.” Ordered the man after a few seconds of silence. “Will you?”

At that point I knew I had to obey, and so, I nodded.

“Good.” Replied the man as he slowly released his grip on me, returning to his tea brewing position.

He pulled out a small silver spoon from the left pocket of his jacket and used it to stir his tea.

Once, twice, thrice he stirred the tea in his cup, before raising it towards his face and pouring it down the mouth hole of his burlap sack. Rather unsurprisingly, the tea wet his burlap sack and poured down his chin, staining his suit.

What did surprise me however, was the fact that not only was the tea dripping from his “face”, but also from inside it, as the liquid poured down from the bottom opening of his burlap sack, down his neck, and onto his black suit also.

It’s as if the man had nothing inside his mask.

We both fell silent for a while before the man smashed the cup onto the floor, then stood up with a hum as he adjusted his bowler hat. “Let’s go, Max.” He said.

My mouth opened as if a sound was about to come out, but none did.

My pupils slowly rolled up to look at the man as he loomed over me, taking a step closer. His shoes practically touched my still seated legs.

As I looked up, it appeared that the man was looking back at my slightly terrified face. His hollow eyes left me somewhat tranced for a few seconds before the man reached out his right arm for me to grab.

“Grab it.” He said in barely more than a whisper.

I nodded and looked away from his burlap sack face as I extended my right hand to grab his. To my surprise, he was rather strong, as he pulled me up with one hand and with such ease. My body jerked before I was able to stand up properly.

The man then led me towards the door without another word.

Our shoes clapped in the silence as we walked towards the door. Above us, the lamp flickered a few times more before we finally got out the door.

Worried thoughts were running through my mind as I stood there while the tall man closed the door of my house behind us. My mother wouldn’t let me talk to anyone except her, what would she do if she were to find out I was going out with a strange stranger? Just thinking about that made me shiver and shake.

The worried thoughts going through my mind were interrupted when the man suddenly tapped on my right shoulder. His gentle tap jolted my body for some reason, causing me to surpress those feelings and just follow him.

Of course, it was nothing new. Surpressing my feelings was nothing new to me at all. I’m used to it.

The man led me down the hill on which my house stood, and into the woods surrounding it.

The tall, sinister looking trees loomed over us as we walked through the woods. That was the first time I ever set foot in there.

The cold wind was blowing gently and it sent chills down my spine as my shoes crushed some leaves under my feet as we walked.

Crunch, crunch ... the crunching of leaves ... and the occasional gusts of wind ... were the only sounds that were heard.

I had the feeling we were being watched for some reason.

Both the tall man and I stayed relatively quiet through the stroll. I observed the way he walked and rather strangely, the way he walked wasn’t as strange as when he walked around the room in my house. He kept his arms inside his pockets at all time, and his steps were somewhat stiff, but steady nonetheless. I had the feeling the man was thinking about something serious in his head (head?) all the while.

Suddenly, as if to fill the quietness, words came out of my mouth, words that perhaps ... I shouldn’t have spoken.

“Sir, are you human?” I asked before realizing what I had just said.

Both of us stopped dead on our tracks at once. The man slowly turned to look at me while I clasped both of my hands over my mouth. He just looked at me, with the same life-devoid expression of his stained burlap sack.

Eerie silence filled the air for a few moments before a gust of wind blew past us.

“I ... don’t know.” Answered the man simply. “I think I was once.” He said in barely more than a pitiful whisper. I thought I caught a hint of sadness and despair in his voice for a second there.

“How old are you Max?” He asked suddenly.

“I think I’m around twelve sir.” I answered. Also in barely more than a whisper.

My mother would always pet me on the head and smile at me during my birthdays, for as long as I could remember. Every year on that very special occasion she would whisper into my ear, “Your time is getting closer and closer love.”

“That’s so? Twelve years, huh? So that’s how long it has been...” Muttered the man as he turned back to face the road and continued to walk. I followed closely behind.

I didn’t understand what he meant by that, but I kept quiet and just followed him since I thought my mouth had spoken out of turn quite enough for the whole day.

And so with that, the eerie silence between us continued as we walked deeper and deeper into the forest.

 

As we got deeper and deeper, the weather got colder and everything grew darker and darker. My legs were getting tired, and I rubbed my palms together before clasping them over my mouth to warm up.

“Sorry Max ...” Muttered the man suddenly.

I was confused. Really, I was. Never before in my life had anyone said that word to me. Not once.

“Sorry? For what?” I asked.

“You’re cold and tired aren’t you? I’m sorry you have to go through all this.” Answered the man.

I didn’t know how to respond. I really didn’t. Words weren’t an option, and so I kept quiet.

“It’s just that ... well, the real reason I brought you with me is because I’m scared.” The man continued.

“Huh?” I said as I looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Scared of what sir?” I asked quietly.

“The voices.” Answered the man. “It was the voice of a girl. I ...” The man didn’t finish. Instead, and surprisingly so, he sobbed and rubbed his burlap sack with his right hand.

Again, I didn’t know how to respond.

“The voice told me to come to your house Max. It ordered me so before it just vanished. I couldn’t refuse of course. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always been taught never to disobey any order whatsoever.” Explained the man.

“This man’s a lot like myself...” I thought in my head. “And the voice of a girl he’s talking about, could it possibly be the same voice that occasionaly talks to me and keeps me company in my room?”

 

“I called out to the voice after it gave me that order Max. I did, I tried!” Continued the man. “The voice ... it reminded me of ... well, it sounded just like ... her.”

“Her?” I asked in a whisper.

“I called and called, I begged the voice to come back. I begged her to tell me exactly who she was. Could it really be her? Could it?” The man murmured before suddenly stopping dead in his tracks.

I stopped as well of course, and saw that to our left was a stretch of land decorated with what looked like tombstones, all cramped together like some bodies were hastily buried there, and in front of us, stood a wooden shack, quite similar to my own house.

“Is this the place sir?” I asked. “Is this your house? Have we finally arrived?”

 

The man didn’t answer my question. He had both of his arms on his sides with his hands clenched in a fist, and his face looking down at the ground.

“Was it really you? Why... why did you have to leave me again after only uttering that one sentence, without a single word of greeting or farewell ... Just like you did before ...” He muttered to himself as his body began to shake. He sounded as if he was about to break down and cry.

As I moved closer to try and comfort him though, his shaking suddenly stopped, and he seemed to have suddenly calmed down.

“It’s been twelve years ... I’m so lonely.” He whispered before suddenly snapping out of his sadness.

“Ah, I’m so sorry about that Max. Let’s go inside shall we?” Said the man as he finally looked at me. He placed his hand on my shoulder and directed me towards the shack.

A cold, strange breeze blew out of the shack as the man opened the door. I stepped inside and was quite bewildered by the sight.

Wooden toys and dolls of many shapes, sizes and variations lined the room, filling the walls and floors. Some were seated on chairs, while others were just slumped on the floor. Some were also put up on shelves, sitting neatly with their backs against the walls.

Some of the toys were as big as an adult human being, while some others were as small as a marionette doll. Some had masks on, some didn’t. Some had human facial features and bodies, while some others had animal features.

It really seemed as though their blank, lusterless eyes,  glimmering under the dim lighting of the room were all fixated on me as I scanned the room.

“Max ... these are the friends I told you about.” Said the man suddenly from behind me.

“Oh ... but are they alive though, sir?” I asked yet another question that perhaps shouldn’t have escaped my mouth.

“Well ... yes, they are.” Answered the man. “Only, they’re still dormant. They’re not ready yet. That’s what she told me.”

I gulped hearing that. “She? You mean the voice you mentioned earlier?” I asked.

“No no ...” Answered the man. “Please Max, don’t remind me of that ...” He whispered in a somewhat shaky voice as he walked towards one of the windows in the room. He put aside one of the dolls that was previously seated on the windowsill and looked outside.

“It’s just so lonely here Max ... by the way, earlier you also mentioned that you’ve heard voices in your room before. What do these ‘voices’ say to you boy?” He asked.

 

“They keep me company sir, I love the voices. They’re always so kind to me. They would always comfort me whenever mother does something ... bad ... to me. The voices also told me to never tell mother I talk to them, or ... her.” I answered, though after a few seconds of silence I added, “Even so, you’re the first man I’ve actually met and seen to keep me company sir. I’m happy.”

The man stood quiet for a while, still looking out the window before he finally muttered in a serious yet quiet voice, “So that’s where you’ve been ...” He then turned away from the window and walked towards me slowly before crouching in front of me.

It was weird though as for a moment there, even though his hollow face was still covered completely by the stained burlap sack, I felt ... the warmth of a smile behind it as he tilted his head to the left, only inches away from my own.

“I’m glad if she’s really been keeping you company then.” He then said with a friendly and warm chuckle as he reached for my head and scruffled my hair.

I couldn’t help but smile and laugh lightly as well.

Suddenly though, the comfort of the moment was taken away when heavy footsteps were heard approaching the door.

Footsteps that I feared I knew all too well.

“Excuse me for a moment.” Said the man as he stood up and walked towards the door. Before he got there though, heavy knocks were heard. Heavy knocks that shook the door and almost the whole shack.

Strangely, all the motionless ‘dormant’ toys in the room suddenly seemed to have had a thick vibe of fearful anticipation around them, as their glittering eyes seemed to have all suddenly been turned towards the door.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK. Louder and louder the knocks grew, and closer and closer the man walked towards the door.

Finally, as the man opened the door, my heart seemed to have dropped a thousand feet. My eyes grew wide, and I nearly choked on my own saliva as I tried to gulp. I felt a wave of deathly chill breeze enter my veins as I saw who was at the door.

Mother.

Mother was carrying a shovel and was about to say something to the man but stopped abruptly when her eyes suddenly noticed me.

I think she was just as shocked as I was, for her terrified gaze was fixated on me. Her mouth was wide open and she stood frozen on the spot for a few seconds before she suddenly began to shake, and her expression turned from shock to anger almost immediately, but not directed towards me anymore, but rather the man.

With her clenched, gritting teeth and burning eyes hidden under a squint, she began to advance towards the man.

“You ... brought ... HIM ... HERE!? DIDN’T YOU!?” She shouted, and before the man could respond with anything other than a whimper, mother grabbed him by the collar and lifted his whole body into the air with seemingly no effort whatsoever.

“DID YOU TELL HIM!? WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM!? WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO!? Are you planning to betray me just like ... like her? Huh? Are you?” She blasted to the man as she pinned him towards the wall, knocking some of toys onto the floor.

“No...” Whimpered the man quietly.

Mother then proceeded to press her own face against him and whispered something harshly. All I was able to make out were the words “ .... protect .... you ...replaced ....”, followed by the man gasping.

She then dropped his limp body to the floor and walked back a couple steps to grab her shovel, while the man rubbed his neck and grunted about.

Not giving him a chance to do anything, mother quickly walked back towards him and raised her shovel above her head.

“No! Please don’t, mo...” Choked the man as he raised both of his arms above his head.

“NO!” Shrieked mother suddenly, as if the word he was about to spit out was so dangerous for her.

And so, without another moment of hestitation, mother swung her shovel and slammed it into the man’s head.

The man’s head smashed open with a loud crack and red liquid burst out, staining the walls and even my mother’s dress. The burlap sack that was covering his face was ripped open and finally I saw the truth behind it.

He was not a human after all. As his bowler hat slumped over his cracked head I saw that splinters were jutting out of it. Apparently, his head was just a hollow piece of wood filled with red liquid, covered with a burlap sack for a face.

Watching the first and only friend I have ever met get killed by my own mother, it was a traumatizing sight and I was just left sitting there in the middle of the room in shock. I felt the eyes of all the toys surrounding me slowly turning to face me as my mother did as well.

“Get up, let’s go.” She ordered as she walked towards me while still breathing heavily.

My mouth opened, but I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know what to say at all. But it didn’t matter though, for my mother pressed her right index finger onto my lips and said, “Not one word ... love ... you will come home with me right now, and I don’t want to hear a single word from you.”

I complied of course, but strangely, that very night, as mother dragged me through the forest, I felt something in my heart. Something I’ve never felt before. It was really strange, but I couldn’t help it. As the wind got colder and colder and as I heard the birds of the evening forest made their sounds, as the brittle orange leaves get crushed under my feet, AS my mind continued to replay what happened that day in my mind, how mother killed someone whom I considered my first friend for reasons I didn’t know ... I felt like I was beginning to harbor ... hatred towards her.

As soon as I got home, mother forced me into my room and said, “I’m way ... too tired tonight ... I will speak of your punishment tomorrow. In the meantime, You will NOT think about what had happened today, you understand? Not. One. Bit.” Before closing the door and locking it from the outside.

I felt ... horrible.

With aching legs and a heavy heart I painstakingly made my way towards my bed. I felt so incredibly tired but my eyes wouldn’t close. Anything else in the room seemed to disappear as bad thoughts clouded my mind. I wasn’t even sure what I was thinking about. All sorts of scary things and horrible thoughts ran around without rest in my brain.

I couldn’t take it anymore, I broke down into tears, but I forced my face into my pillow in hopes that mother won’t hear me sob.

I’ve been scolded and even beaten before, but never in my life have I ever felt as depressed as I was that night.

As I sobbed and sobbed though, I caught a few words of what my mother was saying outside my room “Don’t worry ... damage ... undone ... tomorrow ... replaced.”

I didn’t know what it meant, and I couldn’t care less. At least I thought I couldn’t, that was until another voice came along.

“Psst, hey ...” Said the familiar voice. I recognized it at once. It was the same, kind voice of a girl that occasionaly kept me company from time to time. Only it was a bit different that night. While usually very calm and soothing, something in the tone in which it spoke in that night made me think that something was wrong. The voice sounded like it was worried.

“Huh?” I said after I lifted my head up from the pillow, my face still wet with the tears and my eyes still itchy and moist.

“Could you please open the window, kiddy? I need to tell you something important tonight. Oh, and please be quiet.” Said the voice.

Huh. Kiddy, that’s what the voice always referred to me as. I always did like that nickname, especially since I never had one before that friendly wooden man bestowed the name Max upon me.

“Open the window? What’s wrong?” I asked as I got up from my bed.

The window in my room was located to the right of my bed, right next to bedside table. It had a light green curtain covering it, and the color would always shine brilliantly whenever moonlight would pass through it.

“Please open the window quickly kiddy, and please, don’t scream or shout or be too surprised when you do.” Ordered the voice.

“Surprised? What am in for?” I thought in my head as I slowly tiptoed a couple steps towards the window. Truth be told, I actually felt kind of nervous as I slowly opened the curtain. Never before had the voice sounded so worried, and the fact that it asked me to open the window and not scream when I do, just made it all more confusing and eerie.

I thought I saw the vague silhouette of a small girl just standing outside the window as I stood there in front of it.

Slowly I opened the curtains and was really quite bewildered at what I saw.

A rag doll. A rather large rag doll with black buttons for eyes wearing a red and purple dress.

I gasped and my jaw dropped open, but the rag doll immediately pressed her right hand on her lips, reminding me to be extra quiet.

Thankfully, I managed to catch my breath, and no other sound other than the gasp escaped my mouth.

I slowly and carefully unlocked the window and gently pushed it open. A cold night breeze greeted my face and entered the room right as I did so.

“Come on kiddy, I know this is sudden and all, but you’ve got to come with me. Come on, climb out the window and let’s get out of here.” Said the rag doll. The rag doll’s voice was the same as the one that I was so familiar with. ‘She’ was the voice.

“Go with you? Where!?” I asked in a harsh whisper. “You know, my mother’s already ...”

“Your mother’s going to kill you tomorrow kiddy!” Replied the rag doll in an equally harsh whisper, interrupting my sentence.

I shut up instantly. My brain was so shocked by that sentence that it needed a few seconds to really process what the rag doll girl had just said, and even when it did, all I could say was, “What!?”

“I’m not lying! Please trust me kiddy! Why would I lie to you about such a thing?” Said the rag doll as she reached for my collar and pulled my face towards her own. Like the man, she was also unexpectedly strong, but unlike the man, even though she was a rag doll, she could display expressions on her face, and her expression as she held my own face only inches from her own, was that of genuine worry.

“B-but ... but ...” I stammered as I glanced back at the entrance door to my room a couple times in panic.

“Listen ... I’ll explain everything as we walk. It’s too risky to tell you all the reasons here. What if your mother heard us?” Said the rag doll.

I was really confused and I didn’t know what to do, but frankly, after what had happened that day, I decided to trust the rag doll.

“Okay, I’ll come with you.” I said, prompting the rag doll to let go of my collar.

“I’m glad you finally understand kiddy.” Said the rag doll as she began to take some steps away from my house, motioning me to follow her with her hands.

I quickly climbed out through the window and carefully closed it, praying that mother didn’t see me as I looked around.

After making sure that she didn’t , I quickly followed the rag doll down the small hill and into the woods again.

It hadn’t even been an hour, and there I was, walking through the cold, creepy woods again, this time following a rag doll instead of a wooden man.

“I ... could you please explain everything now? I’m confused and terrified. Really, I am.” I said as we got deeper and deeper into the woods.

“Hold one moment.” Replied the rag doll as she suddenly stopped me on my track. She then made a turn to the right and crouched down, reaching into a bush close to one of the really tall trees. “I think it was around here...” She muttered as she searched for something inside the bush.

After searching for a few seconds, she finally found what she was looking for, and that was a large brown book.

The book was nearly as large as the rag doll herself, and the rag doll was around half my size, so that really was a large book. Its cover was decorated with a circle in the middle, and in the middle of the circle was a strange star. The edges of the book were decorated with nonsensical shapes and letters that I could not read or identify. It really was a strange book, and nothing like I’ve seen before.

“This is your mother’s ... I stole it from her work shack.” Explained the rag doll. “I then dropped it off in this bush to hide it before coming to pick you up.”

“Work shack?” I asked. “You mean the wooden man’s shack?”

The rag doll’s button eyes grew wide. She seemed to have been quite surprised by my question. “I thought you’ve met the wooden man. But you’ve been to the shack? Did he take you there? W-why? How?” She asked in a somewhat bewildered and confused tone.

I nodded. “But the wooden man is dead now. Mother killed him after she saw that he had brought me together with him to the shack.” I added sadly.

The rag doll fell speechless for a few seconds. Both her eyes and her mouth were open wide. “B-but ... he’s dead!? I ... why did he bring you? I only told him to come to your house! I didn’t ask him to bring you to the shack with him! I thought you were at home alone before your mother came home.” She explained.

“So it’s true ... the wooden man did tell me of some voices of a girl that told him to come to my house. So it was you too?” I asked, just to make sure.

“Yes, it was me. But I only sent him to your house so the work shack would be empty, thus allowing me to come inside and steal this!” Replied the rag doll as she held up the book.

“But why?” I asked.

“ I need to protect you kiddy. I want to set you free. I don’t want you to suffer the same fate as me and ... Max.” Replied the rag doll.

“B-but ... I’m confused ... Max? That’s the name the wooden man gave me. Who are you referring to? And what happened to you before? I-I’m ...” I couldn’t finish my sentence. I was too confused and still scared.

“He named you Max?” Said the rag doll with an amused smile on her face. “He really did love that name.” She chuckled.

“I still don’t understand...” I stammered out.

The rag doll sighed before she looked at me straight in the eyes and said in her most soothing tone of voice, “I can tell you everything right now kiddy, about the truth, and I will. But, I want you to prepare yourself because there’s lots for you to take in. I hope you can handle it and believe me too. Do you think you can do that?”

I nodded silently and sat down on the ground in front of her, so that my face was directly facing hers.

Silence filled the air, and I began to wrap my arms around my own body to warm myself up as the rag doll seemed to think for a few moments. “Where to start ...” She muttered.

“Okay ...” She finally said after what seemed like minutes of her just wondering where to begin her story. “Around fourteen years before you were born, your mother had a twin. One of them, a boy, was named Max, and the other one, a girl, was named Cindy, who was, well ... me. I am Cindy, and the ‘person’ whom you referred to as the wooden man was Max.”

Just that first sentence alone made my head spin. It took a full few seconds before I could finally ask, “So what you’re saying is ... you’re my older sister, and the wooden man was my older brother?” in a weak voice.

“Correct.” Answered the rag doll (Cindy) simply. “I’m glad you’ve caught on. We’re your siblings.”

“B-but neither of you are even human! And I’ve never even seen either one of you before today!” I protested, not knowing how else to put it.

“Be patient kiddy, I’ll get there ...” Said Cindy as she put her rag doll hands on my knees to calm me down.

After I took a gulp and nodded, she continued her story.

“I had always thought mother was really weird even since we were kids. She was seriously into the supernatural and was obsessed with mystics and slavery for some reason. She was also very paranoid and demanding, teaching us things like never to disobey her and don’t ask questions as well as other rules that I’m sure she forces upon you as well.” Explained Cindy.

“You already know how your mother is don’t you, kiddy? You also know how ... unstable she could get sometimes.” She added.

I nodded simply. I actually felt a strange relieve to meet someone who dared say bad things about mother like that, since all this time I had secretly, yet fearfully been surpressing those very feelings and thoughts about her.

Yet ... I still felt a sense of unease talking bad about her behind her back like that. Even though I knew it all had to be done, the years of reinforced pressure my mother had put on me still had an effect. “Oh all the rules I am breaking right now.” I thought as I sat there, listening to a rag doll’s story about how she claims to be my sister.

I had to shake it off. All those feelings of unease, and my fear of mother, I knew I had to shake them off. I had to fight it, and force myself to listen because I understood it could potentially save my life and shed some truth.

 It was all really hard for my brain handle, for the idea of even talking to a stranger was such a ridiculously far-fetched idea just the day prior.

I had to really force the logic of there being a whole truth other than what my mother had been telling me into my mind in order to be able to listen to Cindy, and it didn’t help at all that her story was so ... well, hard to take in.

What did help however, was the death of the wooden man, or as Cindy referred to him, my brother Max. If it wasn’t for his death, I would’ve still trusted my mother so much ... more.

So I forced myself to keep an open mind. I forced my eyes to look on to the rag doll named Cindy who was standing in front of me as I brushed my hair back and pinched my forehead just to be really sure that all that was going on wasn’t just a dream.

The pain that I felt while pinching my forehead, soothed by the cold night air, accompanied by the pain of my aching legs and my heavy eyes that wouldn’t shut reassured me so, and with that, I listened on as Cindy continued her story.

“However, while mother was such a harsh and demanding person who could be unstable at times, my, or rather our father was very different. He was a very kind and caring man, yet he was very compliant towards mother. Never once had he ever stood up against her, well not until the one day after you were born.” She continued as began pacing back and forth in front of me.

“I ... never knew my father. I never knew and I still don’t know anything about him. Once I asked mother where father was, and she said he left on the day I was born. She also scolded me and told me never to mention the word ‘dad’ or ‘father’ ever again.” I mumbled sadly.

“Hmm. There’s a reason for that.” Said Cindy. “Oh, and aren’t you wondering how me and Max were given names but you weren’t?” She asked.

I shook my head. It didn’t even occur to me until that very moment that she mentioned it. The concept of names, I always thought, was unimportant. I never knew any other name other than mother and ‘kiddy’ before that day came along, and those weren’t even real names.

Mother would always refer to me as ‘love’, or she’s angry with me she would usually just call me ‘boy’.

“Well, the reason is because we were both named not by mother, but by father.” Explained Cindy. “Anyway, back to that day after you were born. By then, father had not yet thought up of the perfect name to give you it would seem, and mother told him not bother. She also said there was something she needed to discuss with father in private, and so she sent me and Max to play outside.”

“Max inherited a lot of father’s personality. He was much more compliant and much less doubtful and suspicious than me. He always thought of our family as a perfect family, and he never once doubted my mother. I on the other hand, I don’t know why, but for some reason ... I always saw the anomaly in the things that my mother did, and the way she behaved and treated us all as a family. Unlike Max, I had an idea what a perfect family is, and I knew that we weren’t it. While I obliged to mother’s commands most of the time, I still never trusted her the way Max did, and I always wondered how a kind hearted and soft spoken man like father ever ended up with someone like her.” She continued as she suddenly stopped pacing back and forth and turned away from me to face the long road of the forest before us, as if she was in deep thought, with her hands neatly crossed behind her back. I could almost feel an aura of sadness and despair emanating from her body as she just stood there in front of me.

“A perfect family ...” That word suddenly popped into my mind as if to fill the silence of the air during which Cindy seemed to have been trying to get her emotions together.

“A perfect family ...” That word kept repeating itself over and over again for a few seconds inside my head.

“How ... I ... never even knew my father! ... my mother... was all that I ... had!” Suddenly a voice exploded inside my head. It shocked my whole body and made my ears ring.

I began to shudder and shake as I clenched my teeth and raised my hands to hold my head together. Out of nowhere I suddenly felt a throbbing headache that made me feel like my head was going to explode. I lowered my back, so much so that my forehead nearly touched the dirty leaves on the forest ground.

My eyes began to feel moist and I felt a trickle of water run down my cheeks as I began to gasp, as if I wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

I had burst into tears, and I didn’t even know why.

“A perfect family ...” Once again that dreaded word repeated itself inside my throbbing head.

“What’s wrong? Kiddy? Hey, come on...” Said Cindy as she turned around and tried to comfort me.

“I ... how ...” Was all that I could spit out.

I closed my eyes and hoped to envelop myself in darkness. A part of me wished that the whole day I had experienced was just a bad dream, while the other part of me wished my whole life as I had remembered it was just a bad dream.

It didn’t happen of course. I knew it wouldn’t. I knew none of it could just be a dream. Things don’t go like that. Not for me. And the pain that I felt just reassured me so.

The horrible, throbbing, heavy pain.

As I still kept my eyes closed, (so closed in fact, that it hurt), images of my past memories suddenly flashed in my mind, filling the darkness.

Too bad all the memories were horrible memories.

Images and memories of my mother beating me and scolding me and restricting me from doing whatever I want, they all suddenly flashed around in my mind, and the ringing of mother’s shrill and terrifying voice filled my ears.

“No ... stop!” I sobbed. “No happy memories, no happy memories at all ...”

The throbbing in my head and the ringing of mother’s voice in my ears got worse and worse until ... they finally stopped.

And the tears stopped as well, and so did the shaking of my body.

I didn’t know why, but it all stopped all of a sudden. The pain, it went away.

“Agh ...” I muttered as I slowly raised my head up, and after wiping the tears away from my heavy eyes I saw Cindy’s raggedy face.

Though raggedy, I felt that hers was a face filled with kindness, sympathy, and warmth. All things that I finally realized my mother never once showed to me.

She had her raggedy hands on my back the whole time, stroking it gently and warmly. As she did, my tears gradually stopped.

“I know it’s rough but ...” Cindy began to talk, but I cut her short.

“No no ... please, go on with the story. I can take it.” I said.

“Are you sure?” She asked as she looked me in the eyes and wiped some of the tears away. I felt a little tickled as her soft raggedy hands swiped my cheeks and under my eye. It made me smile lightly as I gave her a nod.

“So anyway, where was I again?” She asked with a small chuckle. “I forgot.”

I knew she was still trying to cheer me up.

“Mother sent you and Max to go out and play ...” I replied simply, while my eyes were still trying to adjust. It was really quite hard, since the sky was really dark.

“Yes, of course. Well anyway, Max being as compliant and innocent as he was, immediately went down the small hill and played around, obeying mother’s order. It had never happened before you know ... prior to that day, the last thing that mother wanted was for us to wander off on our own without her supervision. So me, being me, never having trusted mother completely and thinking something was suspicious, decided to stick around and listen in on what mother and father were talking about. And well, let’s just say ... it shocked me.” Said Cindy. By then, it looked as if she was the one about to break down and cry.

“W-what is it? What were they talking about?” I asked. At first I was confused, but after a few seconds I then understood that it must difficult for her remembering something that was probably incredibly traumatic for her.

I wanted to comfort her, but I really didn’t know how. I didn’t know what to say. I was still pretty insecure myself, and having to comfort a rag doll was something I never even dreamed would happen in a million years. And so I just waited in silence as she prepared herself to continue the story.

“She wanted to kill us.” Replied Cindy.

“K-kill you?” I stammered. “M-mother? Did she really ...”

“Yes. She told father her plan. How she finally figured out the perfect spell to transfer the souls of newly deceased humans into objects.”

“She told him that her dream was to create a large family of wooden toys and dolls that would serve both of them and bend to their every will. She wanted to turn us into toy slaves. She wanted to make us her test subjects, and she planned to eventually turn you into a toy as well once you were old enough.” Said Cindy.

I was at a loss for words. My mouth opened, but as expected no sound came out. I didn’t know what to say, but I was ready to believe anything that Cindy was telling me.

“Father, rather surprisingly, wasn’t ready to oblige, and for the first time in my life I saw him stand up to mother. The idea alone repulsed him. He said he had always tolerated mother’s interests in mystics, but he said she really crossed the line when she wanted to kill Max and me and turn us into toys, and eventually you as well. An aggresive side of father had awoken. A part of him I had never before seen. A part of him I idolized.”

“Unfortunately, that was also his last moment alive. Mother was so shocked when father stood up to her and tried to fight her like that, that she lost it. After father yelled and shouted at her loudly for a few minutes, she ran towards the kitchen, and father chased after her. I witnessed the whole thing through the front window, but that was the last time I saw my father. Chasing my crazed mother into the kitchen. I assumed she managed to overpower him and butcher him after that. I only heard the screams. I didn’t witness what was going on in the kitchen myself. It was probably best that I didn’t. The screams that I heard were ... traumatic enough for me. Even to this day, when I think back on it ...” Cindy’s voice got weaker and weaker and her legs finally bent down and she fell to her knees, shaking.

“Oh, daddy ... those ... screams ... I ...” She sobbed and shook her face as she covered her face with her hands.

 

“Cindy ...” I said in barely more than a whisper as I reached out my right hand to comfort the rag doll. However, before I could even touch her, she looked up, at my face.

“I’m sorry kiddy. I didn’t think I would be the one to break down ... It was such a horrible memory though, just thinking about it makes me shiver.” She said as she wiped under her button eyes.

“Oh right, I can’t produce tears...” She whispered as she forced herself to smile.

I had a feeling that she was really forcing that smile though, so I wouldn’t feel bad for her.

“So mother really is an evil person all along. It’s all true ... mother ... she’s ...” I didn’t finish my sentence. My eyes spaced out and twitched as I uttered those words with difficulty.

Cindy nodded sadly.

 

“I still remember the horror of what I felt that day, after what I had heard and witnessed. I wanted to run, but my body was frozen on the spot. I was too horrified, too petrified. My legs wouldn’t move, in fact, they failed me. My eyes began to water and my vision began to blur, but I wasn’t crying, I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t make a sound. I just slammed my back on the front wall of our house and slid down slowly as my legs got weaker and weaker. It felt like they were turning into jello. Before I knew it, the front door slammed open and my still-enraged and crazed mother saw me right away. She asked me if had heard all that. I didn’t reply. I could even barely look at her, it took a while for my head to turn so that I could look at her face. She had ... drops of blood ... on her face, but I knew instantly that it wasn’t hers.” Cindy’s voice got weaker again as she continued.

For some reason I just couldn’t stand seeing like that. “Cindy ... you don’t have to finish the story if it’s that hard. I understand.”

“You understand?” Asked Cindy after she sobbed loudly.

“Yes. I understand that mother is ... evil. Let’s just go.” I replied as I prepared to stand up, but Cindy stopped me.

“No ... you deserve to hear the whole story. You NEED to.” She insisted as she tugged at my pant leg. “I’m okay, please don’t make me feel bad.”

“If you say so, I guess ... but are you sure it’s not too painful for you?” I asked.

I never thought I would be the one to say that in such a situation, but she really did seem like she was in pain just by telling the story.

Cindy nodded in reply, so I sat back down on the ground, while she slowly let go of my pant leg and placed her hands on her chest, taking a deep breath.

 

“Anyways, I think I passed out after that, never to wake up as a human being again. The memory of mother’s blood-soaked face is the last memory of my days as a human being I can recall. She must’ve killed me while I was unconscious, and I don’t know how or when Max was killed, but it couldn’t have been long after I was.” She finally continued.

...

“The next thing I could recall, was me waking up, but it was different. Really different. My eyes felt really heavy and at first, everything seemed really dark and blurry. At first, I couldn’t move my hands  or legs and I couldn’t know where I was. I didn’t know what I was seated on, and I couldn’t feel my body, except for my head which was hurting like crazy. But after a while, my vision gradually returned to me. I was seated in the dim lit living room of my house, on the floor. I could recognize it by the single chair I could see far off in the middle of that room, and the flickering lamp above it.”

“Seated on that chair, was mother. She was holding a large book. Her expression seemed to light up as I began moving my head around, and at that time I felt something was ... off. The first thing I realized was I was much shorter than I should’ve been, and that prompted me to look down at my body, and drop my so called ‘jaw’ in shock. My hands were just stumps without fingers, and so were my legs, only they ended in black shoes with white socks that seemed as if they were stitched onto my skin. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were stitched to my skin, and my ‘skin’ was no longer human skin, but rather cloth. At first I couldn’t believe it, but then I suddenly remembered what mother said to father before she butchered him. She had succeeded, I thought. She had turned me into a toy, and not only that, as I slowly turned to my left I saw that Max been turned into a toy. A tall toy made of wood wearing a black suit that used to belong to my father, complete with a bowler hat and burlap sack covering his face.”

“The wooden man ...” I muttered in a small voice.

“Yes.” Said Cindy simply. “The wooden man. My twin brother and your older brother. At first I thought the toy next to me was father due to his height and the way he was dressed, but he spoke to me first, and I knew that was Max’s voice.” She explained.

“Mother nearly leapt up and down in excitement as she observed us as living toys. Max was trying to adapt to his body, but I was too shocked since I knew full well what had happened. Mother lied to us about that though, she made up a story about how father left and how we would be happier living as toys. I didn’t listen to her. That night, as mother and Max were sleeping, I snuck out of the house, never to enter it again since.” She continued her story.

“What ... happened to you after that Cindy, after you ... ran away. How did mother react ...” I asked in barely more than a whisper.

“I think she was furious. As for myself, I lived on the run for nearly about a week as mother continued to search for me. During those painful early days I nearly tore myself apart. I tried to cry but no tears came out even though my eyes felt like a dam about to burst, and I wanted to scream and shriek as loudly as I could, but I was afraid mother would find me if I did. I banged and slammed my rag doll head against rocks and trees, hoping that it had all been just a bad dream. It was absolute torture. I wanted to run away from the woods, but I knew I would have no place in the world, not as a rag doll. I had no purpose to live ... but then ... I remembered about you, kiddy.” Said Cindy.

“Remembered about me?” I asked, a little confused.

“Yes. I remembered that mother said she would do the same to you when you grow up. I wanted to take you away with me then, but I couldn’t, since well ... I’m a rag doll.”

“So ... I decided to just check on you and keep you company from time to time by speaking to you from outside the window when you’re in your bed. Sometimes I would also wander through the forest to secretly check on mother and Max as well, to see what they’re doing, and ... over these past twelve years ... I have discovered a lot of ... gruesome, morbid, and unforgivable things about it. About what she was doing. Horrible things ... unimaginable horror.” She continued.

“Unimaginable horror ... like ...” I didn’t get to finish my sentence.

“Our mother ... she’s a monster ... a heartless monster in a human’s body. She ... I can’t ...” Cindy began to explain in a stuttery voice, and her body began to shake once more.

“I thought ... the terror and curse that she would bring into this world was cursed upon our family and our family alone, but I was wrong.” She said.

“H-huh?” I stammered.

“For about two years after the incident, mother and Max were busy building the shack now known as her ‘work shack.’ It was nothing special, and I was relieved for a while that they weren’t doing anything too horrible. After she was finished with work shack, she kept herself and Max occupied by making lots and lots of toys, some made from wood and some made from cloth. I was curious what they were planning to do with it and I had my worries for the worst, and those worries of mine proved to be true ... I believe it was about a year after she was finished with the work shack did she regularly go out of the woods  carrying a shovel and a large bag, not to return until the end of the day. Sometimes she would come back empty handed, but other times not. The first time I witnessed the occasion when she came back not empty handed was truly traumatic. My fears were realized. Do you know where I’m going with this kiddy?” She asked.

I gulped. I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to nod or shake my head, so I just gulped loudly and continued listening.

Before she continued however, an icy gust of wind blew past us, prompting Cindy to look up towards the sky.

“It’s getting really dark and really late, and ... well, we need to do something. Quick, we’ll talk as we walk.” She suddenly said as she picked up her book, turned around and began to walk quickly.

 “Wait ...” I called out to her as I stood up myself, which proved to be quite difficult as my legs felt very stiff and tingly.

Then a thought struck my mind. “Wait ... Cindy, you never told me where you’re leading me.”

Cindy stopped dead on her tracks and slowly turned around. “I haven’t told you?”

I shook my head as I walked a few steps forward, catching up with her. “Are we just gonna run away and hide from mother in the woods? Like you did these past twelve years?” I asked.

“No.” Answered Cindy. “We’re on a mission tonight, kiddy, and both you and I will be free from mother’s grasps before sunrise ... hopefully

“We will?” I asked. “But where are we going now?”

“To mother’s work shack, or more precisely, the graveyard next to it.” Answered Cindy. “You’ve seen it haven’t you?” She asked as we resumed our march.

Suddenly the image of the large stretch of land with the gray tombstones I saw earlier that day came to mind. “So it really was a graveyard after all.” I thought. “But who could’ve been buried there? And why are going there?”

“Cindy, why are we going to that graveyard? And whose graves are those?” I finally asked after a few moments of hestitation.

“Those are the graves ... of the kids ...” Cindy began to answer, but she didn’t look at me, and she didn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she even increased her pace.

With my legs still somewhat stiff and aching, it took me quite some effort to try and catch up with her.

“Cindy wait ...” I called out.

She didn’t slow down, but with some struggle, I managed to increase my pace as well and catch up with her.

“Hey ... what kids?” I asked as I was finally walking only a few inches behind the rag doll.

My question once again made Cindy stop dead on her tracks.

After dropping the large brown book to the ground she finally answered, “The kids that mother killed. Innocent kids.”

“M-mother ... killed ... innocent kids too?” I asked in a shaky voice as my body began to shake as well and my eyes widened.

“Yes. And not only once. She continued to do it over the years. She probably killed the kids she lured from the nearby neighborhood just outside the woods. That’s what mother would bring back in her large gray bag whenever she would come back from her strolls not empty handed.” Explained Cindy.

There was a period of silence before Cindy turned around to look and me and said, “Horrible isn’t it? I know kiddy, but it’s the truth. I’m telling the truth, and you’re going to see the proof soon enough.” Before she continued to walk again.

I didn’t respond to her question. I felt my left eye twitch a couple times but ... strangely I wasn’t so surprised or horrified anymore.

“So that’s what mother’s ‘work’ really is.” I thought as I scraped my shoes on the ground. I stared at it while I walked, crushing the leaves, dragging them, as I followed Cindy towards the graveyard next to mother’s work shack.

My dry eyes twitched and blinked a few more times as I focused my gaze on the leaves I was crushing under my feet. I also licked my lips a lot since the cold breeze of the forest had made them dry.

“I resisted telling you all these because I was never sure you could handle it, kiddy. Also, I held back because I always held on to the hope that mother’s mind had changed. I had always hoped that she would decide to raise you properly and forget about turning you into a toy.”

 “I kept holding on to that hope even after I knew what inhuman crimes she was commiting. I still held on to that hope because I didn’t want to terrify you for no reason. I knew that without father, mother would be the only person you were attached to. I knew she was the only person you could love, so I decided to just keep you company as this ‘invisible voice’.” Said Cindy.

I didn’t respond, but I did stop walking, and so did she. My eyes were still fixed on the ground as some thoughts and feelings began returning to my head. I had to fight them off though, I didn’t want them to. I really didn’t.

“But then ... this morning, I ... heard mother talking to Max. She was saying about how you are ‘ready’ and that it’s time for you to be turned into a toy as well. She had planned to kill you tomorrow.” She continued.

“Is ... that ... so ...” I began to talk through gritted teeth.

“I couldn’t just stay put of course, and so as soon as mother left to try and round up another kid to kill, I whispered to Max  (from outside the cabin) and told him to go to your house, all so I could take this book and then come and fetch you kiddy.” Cindy finally finished.

It took me a while to respond to that, but I finally raised my head and looked at her. “Why do you need the book, Cindy?” I asked.

“We’re going to need it to ressurect the children.” She answered simply as she tapped on the book with her hand. “We’re going to need their help if we want to defeat mother.”

Suddenly I felt my stomach drop and my heart skip. I gulped loudly as I slowly raised my hand to cover my mouth. “We’re ... going to kill her aren’t we?”

“Yes ... ” Answered Cindy simply with a nod.

After that, it didn’t take long for us to finally arrive at our destination.

“We’re here.” Said Cindy as she stopped in front of the long stretch of land next to mother’s work shack.

I looked on with discomfort at the rows and rows of grave, all crudely put up, all cramped together in that depressing stretch of land. The whole area was enveloped by a cold, thin layer of mist, making it hard to see what was in the distance.

“We need to fetch a shovel from inside the work shack first. Come on.” Motioned Cindy as she began trotting towards the shack.

I didn’t budge. My eyes were still wide  and transfixed on the graves. The graves of the innocent children that my mother had killed. It gave me a strange feeling, like almost a feeling of guilt, but more like a feeling of despair. It was as if the children were moaning under the ground.

“Hey kiddy, come on!” I suddenly snapped out of my trance as I heard Cindy call me for the second time.

“Oh yes ... yes, I’m coming.” I called back, and after one final glance at the graveyard, I ran towards the shack to catch up to her.

“Open it, I can’t reach the knob.” Ordered Cindy as she motioned towards the doorknob right above her head, just barely out of her reach.

“Remember love ... never disobey orders!” The words of my mother suddenly rang in my ear as I turned the doorknob. Just her voice in my head, it made me somewhat angry, somewhat ... frustrated. It caused me to bang my head on the door as it swung open.

I fell on the floor with a loud thud, and a confused Cindy immediately ran to my side.

“What the heck did you do that for? Are you okay though?” She asked.

I didn’t answer. I simply groaned as I rubbed my aching head.

 “Get out of my mind, mother! Don’t tell ... me ... what to do! Please get out!” I yelled in my own head. “You’re evil ... you ... killer ... I don’t love you ... anymore.”

“Yes ... I’m okay Cindy. I’m sorry.” I finally answered as I lifted my head, but I was surprised that she wasn’t there. She wasn’t beside me, and as I looked around the dim room I finally spotted her.

She was standing in the corner, silent. Standing over the slumped, lifeless body of my friend, the wooden man.

His wooden body was exactly how it was when I left the first time. His head was still crushed and his burlap sack mask was torn, but his bowler hat was still covering his smashed wooden face. His body, still wearing the suit stained in red, with the arms and legs sprawled on the floor, it all seemed so ... lifeless.

The stains of the red liquid that was smashed out of the wooden man’s head was still splattered on the wall behind his body, and the shovel that was used to smash his head was still lying in front of him, also still stained in red.

Cindy didn’t say a word, but as I got up and walked over to her, I saw that her expression said it all.

Her mouth was curled into a slight frown and both of her button eyes were squinting.

“He said ... he was very lonely you know. He wondered why you left him alone and disappeared from his life for twelve years without saying a word. But ... he also seemed relieved when I told him you were keeping me company.” I said as I stood there next to Cindy.

“ ... Is that so?” She replied, before kneeling down in front of his body. “I’m sorry Max ... for these past twelve years, but soon ... soon we’ll finally be together again. I promise ...” She whispered.

“Thank you ...” I thought in my head as I closed my eyes and paid my tribute to him in silence.

“Well now ... it’s okay Max, he’s in a better place now.” Said Cindy suddenly as she turned to face me.

My eyes widened. “Did you just call me ... Max?” I asked.

“Oh, right ... sorry kiddy, I was just ...” She seemed to have been caught off guard herself as she realized what she had called me.

“No no, Cindy. It’s okay, I like that name a lot.” I replied with a smile. “It was his gift to me.”

Cindy smiled back, but her expression quickly turned serious as she tried to grab the shovel lying in between us and the wooden man.

“Let’s go then kiddy, we’ve got no more time to waste. Let’s begin.” She said.

“You mean ...” I asked suspiciously as I realized what her plan was with that shovel.

“Yes. We need to dig up and exhume the bodies first. How else are we going to ressurect the children silly?” Answered Cindy in a teasing manner, but I knew that she was dead serious.

Just then, I suddenly realized that we were in a room full of toys, and as I looked around the room, all of the toys’ eyes met my own.

I felt my nape hair rise as I asked Cindy, “Um Cindy, are these toys alive? The wooden ma-, I mean Max said they were, only they were dormant.”

“Yes. It’s true. I witnessed mother transfer one of the souls of the kids from the body into a toy using a spell from this book myself. It was a scary sight, but I was used to it by then.” Explained Cindy.

“Well then, why aren’t they moving around like you, and Max? ... you know, before his toy head got smashed.” I asked.

“My guess is that mother hasn’t ‘awakened’ them yet.” Replied Cindy.

I didn’t fully understand what that meant, but before I could ask anything else, Cindy shoved the shovel onto my knee. I grabbed it right away.

“Let’s go, we don’t have that much time! What if mother suddenly comes here?” She ordered as she pushed me towards the door.

“Listen, you begin digging the graves, and I’ll take the toys out of the shack. Well, the ones I can reach anyway. Okay?” Asked Cindy as she stood in the doorway with me already outside.

I nodded, and as she retreated back to the shack, I began to walk towards the cemetery, with shovel in hand.

Suddenly, I remembered something.

I turned back, looked around, and I saw it.

Right next to the shack was the large gray bag that mother was carrying before she killed Max and dragged me home.

“Um ... Cindy?” I called out as I began to walk towards it slowly.

“What is it?” She called back from inside the shack, accompanied by the rustling of toys falling to the ground.

“I-is this ... could this ... be ...” I stammered as I felt my nape hair rise again.

“Huh?” Said Cindy as she ran outside and stood next to me.

“Urgh ... uh oh ...” She whispered as we both loomed over the large bag. It was clear that there was something inside it, and we both knew what it was.

Cindy slowly walked towards the bag and untied the knot, only to cry, “Not again ...”

I felt my stomach lurch and my whole body shiver as I saw what was inside.

A body of a girl, around my age, or maybe even younger, dead with blood dripping from cold, pale face.

I then looked down at what I was holding in my hand and dropped it to the ground immediately. My hands were shaking.

“That shovel ... mother used it to kill her too.” I muttered in barely more than a stuttery whisper.

“I don’t think mother has had the chance to even transfer her soul into a toy yet ...” Said Cindy.

“No, Cindy ... I t-think she was killed today ... I remember mother br-bringing that bag before she dragged me home earlier today.” I replied.

“Hmm ... well, all the more reason for us to stop her now I guess ...” Whispered Cindy.

“Come on kiddy, we need to do this! Grab that shovel and dig!” She ordered, suddenly sounding more determined than ever as she tugged at my pant leg.

I gulped and nodded before I bent down to pick up the shovel again, my stare still fixed on the girl as I did.  I was sweating, even in that horribly icy weatherof the night.

“Leave her be ... she’ll be avenged soon.” Said Cindy before she returned to shack.

I then forced myself to turn away as well and begin walking towards the graveyard.

I shivered and rubbed my hands together before I planted my shovel into the nearest grave.

My hands felt numb even after the first few digs, and the cold definitely made it worse, but I forced myself to pull through.

Thankfully the first grave I dug was rather shallow, and I hit something before long.

 I cleared the dirt covering that something with the tip of the shovel and saw that it was a crude wooden coffin.

I squinted my eyes and took another loud gulp before I plunged my shovel into the edge of the coffin’s lid.

I pulled, and the lid made loud and harsh cracking sound as it opened.

A foul stench filled the air as soon as it did, forcing me to back away immediately. I coughed and gagged and covered my mouth before I leaned forward to see what was inside.

The body of a boy, with rotten flesh and sunken eyes. Some of the flesh had even peeled off of his cheeks and hands.

My face started to feel hot and my eyes began to feel moist after just a few seconds of looming over that body.

“I don’t feel too good...” I said to myself as I backed away a couple more steps and coughed once more.

As I wiped a tear from my left eye I saw that Cindy had already taken out quite a few toys from shack, and the rustling sound from inside indicated that she was already trying to get more.

The toys that she had gotten out of the shack were all piled up on the ground a few feet from the door. They all had their glassy eyes looking at me, shimmering under the silver moonlight.

I looked up and saw through a clearing from the trees above that the moon was already hanging high above us.

“It must be close to midnight ...” I thought as its radiant glow amidst the stars entranced me for a few seconds, until I shook my head and returned to the graveyard to dig more graves.

More graves of the kids that mother had killed ...

The grave right next to one I just dug was also as shallow as the first one.

More foul stench filled the air as I cracked open the coffin. I covered my nose with my shirt as I looked at the body inside it. It was another boy, though seemed like that one had been buried longer than the first boy I whose I grave I had dug up.

After what felt like hours digging grave after grave, I began to get used to the foul rotten stench.

The bodies however, varied greatly. Some were boys, some were girls, some were older than the others, and some looked like they were younger. Some were decaying worse than the rest, some looked like they had just been buried, while some few others had been reduced to nothing but their bones.

“Arrgh...” I collapsed on the ground after digging up the final grave.

As I gasped for breath, I dropped the shovel flat to ground next to me, and I looked at my hands. They were dirty and and blistering dry.

Cindy, who had already begun lining up the toys in rows after she had gotten them all out of the warehouse, noticed me and immediately ran to my aid.

“Kiddy! Are you okay!?” She asked as she placed her raggedy hands on my chest.

“Just ... tired ...” I gasped out. “I did it though ... Cindy ... I dug it all up ... did I ... do ... a ... good ... job?” I asked.

“Yes ... yes you did, kiddy. You did a perfect job, get up now, don’t lie next to a grave.” Replied Cindy as she pulled my hand.

As I got up, I picked up the shovel and realized something.

In the not-so-far distance, half covered by the mist, were three graves that I haven’t dug up yet. They were separated from the rest.

“Oh no ...” I groaned.

“What is it?” Asked Cindy.

“I’m not done yet ... look there, there’s still three graves I haven’t dug up yet.” I replied as I pointed towards the three graves.

“Huh ... you’re right.” Said Cindy. “Wait a minute, could it be ...” She then whispered as she began walking towards the three tombstones, with me following closely behind.

“Oh ... so this is where ...” I heard her groan as she stopped in front of the three tombstones. She was looking down at the ground and she had one hand covering her face.

Upon getting closer to her and the tombstones, I realized what she meant.

Unlike the other graves, the tombstones were marked. The names were: CINDY, MAX, and GEORGE.

“Cindy ... i-is this really ...” I began to ask, but she answered before I finished.

“Apparently so ...” Answered Cindy in barely more than a whisper.

“I’ve never known where my original body is buried before this, you know. Don’t bother digging my grave, kiddy, or Max’s, or father’s. We won’t need to.” She explained before turning around and heading back towards the shack.

“Father ... so his name is George ...” I thought before I turned around and followed Cindy.

“Cindy, what’s gonna happen after mother is ... you know, dead?” I asked as we walked.

“We’re all going to be free, kiddy. We’re all going to be free.” Answered Cindy simply.

“Oh ...” I muttered.

Just then, Cindy stopped in front of me and motioned for me to crouch down.

“After this, we are going to ressurect these dead children and they’ll help us ... kill mother. You don’t need to participate in that, kiddy. No, in fact, while me and the rest of these dead children march towards your house to confront her, I don’t want you to come along. You need to run away, far away from the woods and into the closest neighborhood. There, somebody is bound to find you. When asked your name, I want you to make up whatever name you could, but don’t tell them anything else, not mother, not me, not the dead children, okay? Tell them you’ve forgotten everything about your past, and you just woke up one day in the woods. It will be much easier for you that way. They’ll give you a new home.” She said.

“You understand?” She asked.

I nodded, before asking back, “But what’s gonna happen to you?”

“I’ll finally be able to set myself free from this wretched rag doll body. I’ll be at peace ...” She answered as a small smile spread across her raggedy face.

“Oh ...” I replied simply as I kicked a small pebble on the ground, sending it far away into the darkness. “So you’ll die as well...”

“Wait here. I’ll go get the book.” Said Cindy as soon as we arrived back to the shack.

I stood there waiting along with the rows and rows of toys of all shapes and sizes scattered in front of the shack as Cindy went inside to fetch mother’s strange book.

“Well, I hope this works then ...” She prayed as she returned outside a few moments later, with the book in her hand.

After opening the book and browsing through the pages for a while, she finally said, “Here it is ... cross your fingers, kiddy.” Before walking a few steps forward, so that was standing between the rows of toys and the ground and the open graves.

“Wait, we’ll need to draw this circle on the ground first. Could you look for a twig, kiddy?” She asked.

I nodded and began scanning the ground. As one would expect, it didn’t take me long to a find a simple twig, I just had to step out of the forest clearing and search under the trees for a bit.

After drawing the strange circle with the star in the middle like the one in the cover of the book, I threw the twig away and watched as Cindy sat in the middle of it, with the book laid out open in front of her.

She then began the ressurection ritual by chanting some strange incantations that I couldn’t make out.

While she continued muttering the eerie incantations with her voice that gradually got deeper and deeper, I felt the temperature suddenly drop exponentially.

The weather got really, really cold, but I didn’t care. My eyes were still fixed on her as I waited for something to happen. My body didn’t so much as twitch from the cold.

I kept my fists clenched beside me as a strong gust of wind suddenly blew my hair back and ... suddenly, silence.

Cindy had apparently finished the ritual, but nothing happened ... nothing at all.

I gulped and asked in a shaky voice, “D-did it work, Cindy? If not, what are we gonna do now?”

Before Cindy could answer, I suddenly heard loud rustling from behind me, accompanied by the sound of heavy, heavy footsteps. The sound of footsteps I was unfortunately all too familiar with.

“O-oh no ... she’s here ... and we’ve failed! We haven’t ... Oh no no no ... Why did she come?” Whimpered Cindy. Her button eyes were wide and fear-stricken, her mouth was open, and her whole body was shaking.

I was terrified too. I knew who was coming, but before I even had a chance to turn around, she was already there.

I recognized her heavy breathing at once, I felt her. She was standing only a few feet from myself, only a few feet behind me, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn around. I felt my eyes twitch a few times as I still had them locked on Cindy.

“Love ...” Said mother from behind me in between her breathing. “You’ve been naughty.”

I could feel her presence get closer and closer as she began to take heavy steps towards me.

 I wanted to run away, but my whole body felt like it had been frozen. I was frozen on the spot, with both of my fists still clenched at my sides. I was really confused, and really scared. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t move!

Even in the cold weather, sweat was dripping down my face like crazy as I tried to force my legs to move, but I couldn’t, and my mother was getting closer and closer. In fact, I could almost feel her hand grip my right shoulder when suddenly, Cindy yelled with all her might, “Run kiddy! Get behind me!”

Her scream seemed to have broken whatever was keeping me frozen on the spot, as at that particular moment, my legs dashed forward and I was able to run away from mother and get behind Cindy.

Mother had an expression of utter disbelief at what I did. Her right arm was still stretched in front of her for a few seconds and her left eye twitched as she began to slowly turn to face me and Cindy.

“Ah ... so you’ve finally joined their side eh, love? How much did she tell you, and how much did Max tell you earlier? You’ve finally decided to betray me huh, your beloved mother, just like the two of them...” She said slowly.

“Max never betrayed you by the way, you killed him for nothing, witch!” Replied Cindy.

“It doesn’t matter ... even if he didn’t tell that boy anything, he still almost spoiled my secret in front of him. Plus he brought him to this very shack earlier today. He wasn’t supposed to know any of this yet, not until tomorrow ...” Said mother. “What about you? No doubt you’ve told him a lot?” She asked.

“Oh yes ... I told him everything. I told him about how you killed father, and me and Max, and all those kids! I told him the truth! I also told him about how you were going to turn him into a toy tomorrow! I can’t let that happen though ...” Yelled Cindy.

“Wait ... how did you know I was going to kill him and turn him into a toy tomorrow, and how did you know about the kids? You disappeared twelve years ago, before I even did any of those! You were nowhere to be found, you just vanished! What have you been doing these past twelve years? Heck, I’m surprised I’m even seeing you now.” Asked mother.

“I’ve been spying on you, secretly watching you, AND I’ve been keeping Max here company from time to time, while at the same time making sure he would not suffer the same fate as me, Max, and father.” Answered Cindy.

Mother opened her mouth to speak, but then her eyes suddenly turned wide.

Her gaze shifted from Cindy to the book in front of her, then towards the open graves, then finally towards the piles of toys all lined up in front of the shack.

Her body began to shake, and her face was turning red. Her eyes were squinting and twitching uncontrollably. “What are you planning to do, you worthless rag doll!?” She screamed at the top of her lungs.

“I’m going to revive these kids! I’m going to set their poor souls free from your wretched toys!” Cindy screamed back.

I expected mother to scream back, but instead, she dropped to her knees and her eyes suddenly got teary.

“Why? Why must it all come to this? We could’ve been a perfect family had you all done exactly what I said ...” She said, with her voice suddenly reduced as if she was about to cry.

 

“I ... can’t believe what you’re saying ...” Replied Cindy. Her lips were pursed, her hands were clenched into ‘fists’ at her sides, and her body was starting to shake as well.

“Don’t you have any idea what a ‘perfect family’ actually is!? Yes! We could’ve very well been one had you properly raised us! Had you not kept us sheltered from the outside world! Had you not KILLED us and shove our souls into toys! You ... you’re deranged! I can’t believe you! I can’t believe you’re my mother...” She screamed, before falling down to her knees as well.

“You think I don’t have a reason for doing all that!? I loved you all so much, you know. My worst fear was losing you all, I couldn’t even bear that thought. That’s why I kept you all under my supervision at all times, that’s why I ‘sheltered’ you, and that’s why I even got into mystics and witchcraft in the first place.”

“I wanted an answer to immortality, so that we could all be together forever, and after years of searching and experimenting, I finally found it. I figured out a spell that could transfer the souls of the living into inanimate objects like toys! That way, your bodies wouldn’t age, and you would be immune to pain and all sorts of diseases! All of you could’ve been immortal! We all could’ve been together until the very end, and yet, you all bitterly betrayed me in the end, and forced me to live my nightmare ...” Explained mother.

“But ... your idea of a perfect family is twisted! Sure, we could’ve all been immortal, but we wouldn’t be happy! Do you think I’m happy with this raggedy appearance!? No! You took our lives away, both literally and figuratively, and you surpressed us, forcing us to live without any freedom whatsoever! And now you use your own twisted delusions as an excuse to your wrongdoings!”

“And what about all those other kids you killed, huh? Do you really think they would be happy to be stuck in a toy’s body for an eternity, living under your supervision at all times as a part of your ‘perfect family’ in these woods, well, do you!?” Replied Cindy. “Mother ... I ... really tolerated all that you did to me during my first fourteen years of life you know... while I was ... just a little girl ... you pushed me and Max around and sheltered us from the world, and unlike Max ... I knew all of that ... was wrong, but despite all that ... I still loved you. I still thought of you as a mother ... until ... you killed him in cold bold ... until you killed ... my hero ... oh ... father.” She sobbed with her hands on her face.

“Enough of this ... you’ve all wronged me so ... If you can’t appreciate my love, then I’m going to kill both of you right here and now. You don’t want to be stuck in a toy’s body? Fine then, die. Both of you.” Said mother as she suddenly got up.

She then walked towards the shovel I had left on the ground earlier, and grabbed it.

“Cindy ... you hate me, and you’ve betrayed me the worst out of the whole family. You will die tonight.” Said mother as she looked at Cindy with cold, lusterless eyes, before turning to face me.

“You though ... I could still forgive you boy. Are you willing to be turned into a toy and stay with me forever, and do whatever I say?” She asked coldly.

“No ...” I replied in a shaky voice as I shook my head.

“Then ... I will kill you first!” She screamed as she suddenly made a dash towards me.

I screamed and tried to run, but once again I found myself unable to budge. Once again, I had been frozen in my spot.

“NOOO!” Cindy screamed before mother could reach me, and with all her might, and the large book in hand, she lunged towards mother.

“Oof!” Mother shrieked as Cindy, using the book, slammed right into her stomach, causing her to fall over and drop the shovel.

At that moment, I felt whatever was holding me back and causing me to freeze suddenly disappear, and I was able to move again.

“Run kiddy! Run as fast you can! As far away-umph!” Screamed Cindy before mother wrestled her to the ground and bashed her head in the large book.

“Die you ungrateful, stupid rag doll!” Yelled mother as she continued to harshly bash Cindy in the head, causing her to squeal multiple times.

I wanted to run away, but after remembering everything that Cindy had done for me, I felt like I couldn’t leave her alone.

So, I desperately looked around, trying to find a way I could help, and I quickly noticed that the shovel was lying on the ground unoccupied, and since mother was already busy with Cindy (who amazingly put up a fight), I wanted to make a dash for it.

Before I could however, I heard something that made me stop. Some grunting noises, followed by some groaning and some moaning noises, and then ... I saw them.

The children, whose graves I had dug up, were rising one by one from the graves. After witnessing that, I looked over to my right and saw that all the toys that had been lined up on the ground no longer had creepy eyes that followed me around, but rather dead, expressionless eyes. Soulless eyes. They were no longer ‘dormant’, the toys were dead.

Cindy did succeed in transferring the souls after all, only it took some time for the children to wake up.

Mother was so surprised that she immediately let go of Cindy and started to back away.

Cindy used that opportunity to make a run for the shovel, and suprsingly, with visible effort, managed to lift it up.

While mother was still transfixed by the sight of the advancing zombie children, Cindy swung the shovel without hestitation, hitting mother’s right leg. The sharp edge of the shovel cut deep, causing her to fall over in pain.

As she screamed on the ground and grabbed her bleeding leg with both hands, Cindy dashed towards the zombie children to distance herself away from mother.

“You ... took our lives away from us ...” Said one of the zombie kids.

“We don’t want to be puppets ... you must pay!” Said another one.

Soon they were all chanting, “You must pay ... give us our lives back ... you must pay ...” as they continued to advance towards mother, who was paralyzed and bleeding on the ground.

She just looked on in horror as the zombie children began to close in on her.

“It’s your chance now, kiddy! Run!” Yelled Cindy from amidst the zombie children.

Finally knowing that she was going to be safe with all the zombie children backing her up, I finally listened to her and made a dash towards the forest, past the work shack and out from the clearing.

Soon, I was running as quickly as I could through the dark, tall trees of the forest, not knowing where to go, just hoping that I would eventually make it out.

It felt like I was running for hours. I knew I hadn’t been running for that long, but with my aching legs and tired body, it sure felt that way.

I tripped a couple of times due to the darkness and rough terrain, but I never looked back to see exactly what I had tripped on. I just pushed through. I forced myself to push through and keep on running.

After a while though, my body finally started to give away. I felt like I had lost control of my legs, although they were still moving, and I was beginning to see bright dots in my eyes. I couldn’t take it, my lungs were burning, my whole body was sweating, even though I felt cold, and everything was getting darker, and darker ... the last thing I saw was a mysterious orange light through the trees in the distance.

“Could it be another forest clearing?” I thought.

 

Whatever it was, I didn’t make it there. The orange light quickly turned blurry, and so did everything else, and then ... pure darkness.

 I passed out.

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Look at this honey, he’s finally waking up.” I heard someone say vaguely as I opened my eyes with difficulty.

As soon as my eyes were fully open, I looked around and saw that I was in a bright bedroom I never recognized before.

I quickly jumped up into a sitting position, and a compress cloth fell onto my lap, which was covered by a soft blanket.

I looked to my right, and saw that there was a young handsome man with shaggy hair, bright blue eyes and a small goatee at my bedside.

“Take it easy fella ...” He said in a friendly tone as he put the back of his hand onto my forehead.

“W-wait, where am I? Wh-what, who?” All those questions just burst out of my lips the moment I opened them.

Before the young man could answer, a beautiful young woman about his age entered the room. She had bright blonde hair tied into a ponytail and she was carrying a glass of water.

“Here you go sweetie, drink a glass of water first...” She said as she offered the glass of water to me.

I took it and gulped it down quickly since my throat was feeling really really dry and irritated.

“Now ... we found you last night in the forest just off the town. Me and my girlfriend here were having a midnight picnic in one of the forest clearings when we heard a rustling sound behind us. I was afraid it might be something dangerous, but when I checked it out, turns it was you. Unconscious. Out there, just lying in the woods in the middle of the night, and no one was there with you. Can you believe that?” The young man explained.

Suddenly at that point I remembered everything. Mother, Cindy, the zombie children, everything, but I didn’t say anything. I just groaned and held one hand up to my head.

“You slept in our tent last night and we tended to your bruises and gave you the compress. Then this morning, we brought you home with us. You were unconscious the whole time, even through today. You slept through the whole day. We called a doctor over and thankfully, he said nothing serious was wrong with you. You were just very tired.” Said the young lady, continuing her boyfriend’s story.

After a few seconds of silence the young man asked, “Well, do you remember anything? Your name maybe, where you came from? Or maybe your family?”

I suddenly remembered what Cindy said, and that was to make up my own name and say I’ve forgotten everything else.

“My name is ... Max ... George ... George Maxwell! That’s it ...” I answered.

“George Maxwell, right. Well, George ... do you remember anything else?” Asked the young man again.

“No.” I answered simply as I shook my head. “Everything feels ... fuzzy.”

“Oh...” Said the man, sounding a bit disappointed.

“Give him a break dear, he just woke up from being unconscious. Just let him rest through the night, I bet he’ll remember a lot more tomorrow morning, when we’ve given him some time. Right now though, he probably needs some time for himself. Isn’t that right, sweetie?” Asked the young woman with a warm smile.

“Yes ... thank you.” I replied.

 

“Right then ... good luck sport, and don’t be too hard on yourself, okay? We’ll talk tomorrow.” Said the young man as he stood up and scruffled my hair.

The couple then left the bedroom and turned off the light before closing the door.

I could still vaguely hear what they were saying just outside my bedroom door though.

“Honey, do you remember the numerous reports of children going missing around the neighborhood just off the woods. These reports have been around for about ten years! Do you think that kid could be one of those children?” Asked the young man.

“Who know, honey. Maybe. But I suppose we’ll find out everything in the morning, huh? We shouldn’t think too much about it now.” Replied the young woman.

I looked at the electronic watch on my bedside table and saw that it was 11:45 p.m. Next to the bedside table was a window with a transparent curtain covering it. It shone brilliantly under the moonlight passing through it.

As I looked the around the dark room, I noticed that the structure of the whole bedroom was rather similar to the bedroom I previously had, except for the numerous fancy furnitures like a work table and a couple wardrobes.

“So it’s been a whole day after all that huh ...” I thought to myself as I  pulled my blanket and laid my head back on the soft, comfortable pillow.

The bed was so much more comfortable than the bed I had at home. So much warmer, so much softer.

Even so, with the unbelievably comfy bed and all, I still couldn’t sleep since so much thought were still running around in my mind.

After about an hour or so of me just tossing myself around in my bed in silence while thinking about everything that had happened, I suddenly heard a gentle knock on my window. One that I’ve heard before in my life.

I immediately got up and looked to over to the window, and there was an unusual ray of light passing through the window. At first, I thought it was just the moonlight, but upon closer investigation, I realized that the ray of light was different from that of the moon. It was emanating from something much closer to the window.

I jumped off my bed and slowly tiptoed my way over there, and as I did, a gentle, familiar, and warm face suddenly called, “Kiddy ...”

“Huh? C-Cindy?” I called back as I quickly dashed towards the window, opening it and brushing the curtains aside. It was Cindy’s voice alright, but somewhat more ... airy, almost angelic.

My eyes grew wide on the mere sight of what was on the other side. “I ... I ...” I was even at a loss for words, and that was all that I was able to say at first.

A beautiful girl with long, shimmering silver hair waving in the wind, the smoothest skin, and bright, entrancing eyes with the most captivating eyelids, accompanied by the warmest, most radiant smile. A smile that sent a surge of warmth through my whole body while at the same time giving me goosebumps and making my nape hair stand.

She was wearing a long nightgown, and her whole body was transparently glowing, and hovering too. I looked down and saw that she hovering around twelve to thirteen feet above the ground since my room was on the second floor.

What’s the matter silly, are you that captivated by my beauty?” She giggled and asked in a playful manner as she hovered around and did a roll in the air with her arms outstretched to her sides right there in front of my window.

I just gulped and blinked a few times. “C-Cindy?” I asked, just making sure.

Yes, I am Cindy. Who else?” Answered Cindy. “I suppose I do look different from my rag doll form, huh?

I nodded, but didn’t say a word.

“H-how ... it’s been one day hasn’t it? What about mother?” I finally managed to ask after wiping both of my eyes. “Is she ... dead?”

Yes, it has been one day, and yes, she is dead, Max.” Answered Cindy.

“Oh ...” I replied. I was certain that I should’ve felt happy and relieved, but those emotions didn’t hit me right away.

You’re happy though, aren’t you, kiddy? You’ve got no one else to shelter you from this wide, beatiful world, no one to tell you exactly what to do ... you’re free now.” Said Cindy as she swooshed up high into the air a few feet above the window, then dove down again.

“Yes. I ... I am. It’s all thanks to you, Cindy.” I replied with a sob and a smile.

Uh huh ...” She giggled and tilted her head to the left as she closed her eyes and once again flashed me her beautiful, striking smile.

“What ... what’s gonna happen to you though, Cindy? You seem so happy, but ...” I stammered, but was silenced instantly when she leaned forward and planted a soft, icy kiss on my right cheek.

I wasn’t crying, but tears rolled down my cheeks nonetheless.

I’ll be at peace, kiddy. That’s what’s gonna happen to me. I never lived a full life, but I used what life I had to ensure you would ... and I succeeded. I couldn’t be happier.” She whispered into my ear before retreating back outside and hovering a few feet more above the window.

I had to stick my head out and look up to be able to see her. Her translucent body almost blended in with the beautiful starry night above.

 

Good bye, kiddy ... promise me you’ll live your life to the fullest okay ... for me.” She said as began to drift away.

I nodded. “Hey ... Cindy ...” I called out as the tears continued to flow down my cheeks.

Yeah?” She replied.

“Say hi to the wooden man for me okay ... and to father as well ...” I sobbed.

Of course, kiddy ... it also gives me relief that after these twelve, long, painful years, I could finally keep my other brother company again. Well, bye bye then ... love you.” Said Cindy before she continued to drift away ... and away ... disappearing into the starry night above ...

As soon as she disappeared, I found myself feeling kind of sleepy all of a sudden, and as I returned to my bed and closed my eyes, Cindy’s words rang softly like a lullaby in my ears  one final time...

“You’re free now ...”

© 2018 Ian Titian


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Added on December 9, 2017
Last Updated on January 11, 2018
Tags: horror, puppets, ghosts, cult, maniac, insane, surreal, short story, thriller, psychological thriller, haunted doll

Author

Ian Titian
Ian Titian

Malang, Jawa Timur, Indonesia



About
Art is what enables our eyes to see beyond what is visible. It can captivate our souls and make us realize how beautiful and majestic the world around us is, for there is so much to be appreciated tha.. more..

Writing